I've been B2C and B2B PMing for over a decade now and IMO I wasted a lot of time reading product management literature at the start because it convinced me there was a "right" way to do product management when it's completely dependent on your environment. If I were to do it again, I'd focus on product distribution first, understand how my product fits within my organization's distribution strategy, figure out how to make the largest business impact from there, and most importantly align with my manager on that path.
I see it time and time again, a young PM in a B2B SaaS company blathering on about usage metrics and feature adoption when the reality of the business is that cash flow is extremely tight and if sales don't improve, your role might just end up getting cut. Obviously nothing wrong with feature adoption and greater product usage, but jamming a square peg into a round hole is not going to further your career and reading books only about square pegs can unintentionally set your career back.
I've been B2C and B2B PMing for over a decade now and IMO I wasted a lot of time reading product management literature at the start because it convinced me there was a "right" way to do product management when it's completely dependent on your environment. If I were to do it again, I'd focus on product distribution first, understand how my product fits within my organization's distribution strategy, figure out how to make the largest business impact from there, and most importantly align with my manager on that path.
I see it time and time again, a young PM in a B2B SaaS company blathering on about usage metrics and feature adoption when the reality of the business is that cash flow is extremely tight and if sales don't improve, your role might just end up getting cut. Obviously nothing wrong with feature adoption and greater product usage, but jamming a square peg into a round hole is not going to further your career and reading books only about square pegs can unintentionally set your career back.